Raheem DeVaughn @TheJazzCafe 26 June 2018

What can I say? Raheem DeVaughn blew us away. The live performance from #theloveking was wonderful. It was soulful, it was deep, engaging, exciting and he was simply amazing.

He treated us to tracks from each of his many albums. He had support from Wes Felton (the other half of their dual act The Crossrhodes, whose awesome album Footprints on the Moon was out in 2017).

As with all the best soul artists Raheem DeVaughn had the crowd singing along and creating unique call and response soul vibez.

Be in no doubt Raheem DeVaughn is a SOUL LEGEND!!

The warm up act Xamvolo was super cool too and a perfect warm up for Raheem DeVaughn. I will definitely be looking out for new music by this up and coming UK soul artist. You can follow him @xamvolo on Twitter.

Follow @Raheem_DeVaughn on Twitter and Instagram and check out his fantastic new single “Don’t Come Easy”.

KOD

J. Cole’s new album KOD is seriously deep, it’s personal, it’s intelligent and poignant. And the lyrics are pure fire. Much as you would expect from J. Cole!
The title track, standing for Kids On Drugs is on point. Its a theme about addiction that runs throughout the album and is a highly relevant topic for US audiences and beyond and is personal to J. Cole. The whole album is on point. My favourite tracks are Brackets and 1985. Even the outro Window Pain is an outstanding full length track.

You can stream the album here:

Crazy Thing Called Love

I just have to tell you about this tune by Tay Walker. Titled CTCL, standing for Crazy Thing Called Love, it was out in 2017 on You Tube and SoundCloud but unavailable on Amazon, iTunes and Spotify until now. Anyway it’s now available as part of Tay’s album One Way Street To Nowhere #OWSTN , released 25th May 2018. It’s got a fantastic 90s RnB feel to it (think something like Donell Jones / Chico DeBarge style). It starts out as a tale of a young man who sees a young lady crying. Can he help? Is it that crazy thing called love? Just take a listen!

Dreamin’ out loud

Following his critically acclaimed debut album ‘Return of the Cool’ in 2017, Nick Grant has just released a second album Dreaming Out Loud (released 18 May 2018).
Continuing his mission to preserve the culture Nick Grant delivers another excellent album with this mixtape, which features appearances from: BJ The Chicago Kid making a soulful introduction to the album; DJ Khaled slapping down the brilliant Muhammad Ali inspired HipHop anthem Nicky Bomaye; DRAM on the summertime head-nodding track Gucci Plug; Stacy Barthe on the soulful ode, Black Woman; and B.Hess delivering soulful vocals on the jazzy Gentleman’s Paradise.
One of my favourite tracks on the album is Father Figure with its very personal lyrics. 96 Bulls is also very cool.

Links to the album on all major streaming and download platforms can be found on Nick’s website. Check it.

www.nickgrantmusic.com